Lawmakers say gambling stops here

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Anti-gambling leaders from Maryland met yesterday with their Pennsylvania counterparts, hoping to establish a defensive perimeter against the expansion of gambling in the Mid-Atlantic.

"If it passes in Pennsylvania, it's going to pass in Maryland," Del. Curtis S. Anderson, a Baltimore Democrat, said after a two-hour meeting with lawmakers and activists in the state capitol here. "If we can stop it in Pennsylvania, we can stop it again in Maryland as well."

The activists hope to form a coalition of states comprising Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania to keep out casino-style gambling.

The unusual meeting yesterday of about two dozen anti-gambling legislators and activists comes as Pennsylvania's legislature considers a proposal to allow slot machines at 12 sites around the state, with up to 5,000 of the gambling devices at each location.

The legislation, which is backed by Democratic Gov. Edward G. Rendell, is expected to be voted on in June.

It calls for eight of the slots facilities to be at horse racing tracks. Four would be at nontrack sites, two in the Philadelphia area, one in Pittsburgh and one in the Poconos.

A plan backed by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. to legalize 15,500 slot machines in Maryland was rejected by the House of Delegates for the second year in a row this month.

Del. Peter Franchot, a Montgomery County Democrat who headed the Maryland group, told the Pennsylvanians to reject the idea promoted by the gambling industry that the expansion of gambling is inevitable.

He said Marylanders who oppose gambling were told the same thing but managed to beat the odds through grass-roots organizing, enlisting the support of politically influential African-American ministers who were concerned about the impact slots would have in their communities and pursuing other strategies.

"For two years, we have in effect repealed the laws of gravity in Annapolis and defeated the slots initiative," Franchot said. "Next year we will be stronger, and the other side will be weaker."

He said one of the more effective tactics was to promote the "NIMBY" or "not in my back yard" idea.

He said support for slots in Maryland quickly evaporated as talk shifted from putting casino-style gambling in largely poor, predominantly African-American communities to putting it in more affluent suburban areas.

A leading gambling proponent in Pennsylvania dismissed the visit by Marylanders as "an act of desperation" by anti-gambling forces.

A Civil War-period coat worn by a nurse — a woman from a prominent Mathews County family who some believe was the only woman to be commissioned as a captain in the Confederate Army — is among the nominees for Virginia's Top 10 Endangered Artifacts program.